« Return of the browser wars: Google release Chrome | Main | Remember the TDR »


Networked storage is becoming a must-have for many home users. It's great for doing backups and sharing files between a variety of machines, irrespective of their operating systems, so over the weekend I added an old 60GB hard disk to an even older 386 PC and built my own. It's surprisingly easy!

Server-side Setup

  • Install it on your server. Near the end of the installation you'll be prompted for the server types to install. Choose Samba.
  • Log in and note the IP address ("inet addr") that's been assigned to it by typing ifconfig. (In my case this was 192.168.1.101)
  • Create directory to share the network. I typed mkdir shared_stuff to create the directory shared_stuff in my home directory, /home/geoff.
  • Add these details to the bottom of Samba's configuration file, smb.conf. To edit it, enter sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf. Here's what I added...
        [shared]
        path = /home/geoff/shared_stuff
        guest ok = yes
        read only = no
  • Force Samba to reload the new details: sudo /etc/init.d/samba reload



Client-side Setup : Linux

(You can go all of the following using GUI tools but these vary depending on your distro and window manager. Console commands will work with all Linux flavours.)

  • Install smbfs, which includes the more up-to-date cifs: sudo apt-get install smbfs
  • Create a folder to mount the remote directory: sudo mkdir /media/remotestuff
  • Test you can connect to it. Here's my command. The coloured bits are the parts you'll need to set for yourself...
sudo mount -t cifs //192.168.1.101/shared /media/remotestuff -o username=server_username,password=server_password,iocharset=utf8, file_mode=0777,dir_mode=0777
(Note: this command should be entered on a single line!)


Common Errors

mount error: can not change directory into mount target...
You either didn't create the folder /media/remotestuff or entered it incorrectly in the mount command.

mount error 13 = Permission denied
Your server username and /or password are wrong.

mount error 6 = No such device or address
The share name specified in your mount command isn't being found on the server.


You can continue mounting the share manually, but you'd have to do so every time you boot your PC. It's better to automate the process, so...
  • Create and edit a .smbcredentials file: sudo nano /root/.smbcredentials. Add the following lines:
        username=server_username
        password=server_password

  • Edit the File System Table: sudo nano /etc/fstab and add the necessary details. (If your folder names contain spaces, you must replace them with "\040". So folder name should become folder\040name.)
//192.168.1.101/shared /media/remotestuff cifs credentials=/root/.smbcredentials,iocharset=utf8,file_mode=0777,dir_mode=0777 0 0
(Note: this command should be entered on a single line!)

  • Save and close /etc/fstab.
  • Type sudo mount -a to mount the remote share and you're done.




Client-side Setup : Windows

  • Open My Computer
  • Click on Tools / Map Network Drive
  • Choose a drive letter and click Browse.
  • Under Microsoft Windows Network, browse to the appropriate server and folder.
  • Click OK
  • Ensure Reconnect at Logon is ticked and click finish.


Remote Server Administration


Before I buried my file server away in a cupboard without keyboard, mouse or monitor, I ran this command to install SSH:

sudo apt-get install openssh-server

Now I can log in to the server from my desktop and administer it remotely. To connect, enter  ssh serveripaddress (so in my case I typed ssh 192.168.1.101)

SSH needs a little configuration. (You can do this remotely!) Edit the configuration file /etc/ssh/sshd_config and...
  • Disable remote root logins by changing PermitRootLogin yes to PermitRootLogin no
  • Disable X11 forwarding by changing X11Forwarding yes to X11Forwarding no
Restart SSH to incorporate these updates: sudo /etc/init.d/ssh restart


<--Previous Hidden Linux       Next Hidden Linux -->

Posted by Geoff Palmer on September 9, 2008 10:33 AM |

Comments

I installed ssh for remote admin -- now how do I access the server through windows?

Posted by: Jeff | March 31, 2009 4:04 PM

I probably missed something, but the purpose of a file sever is that you can share your files or even better--backup you PCs' file to that server. A 386 are not such a problem as the CPU goes, but its hard drive space are greatly limited by its BIOS or IDE hard drive interface. In short, there are not much storage space for
a file server and it couldn't expend much as well. That is why I have a hard time to find a as cheap as disposable file server and I ended up buying a Celeron D one. It seems over kill, but it got SATA interface and lot of USB ports which could put some of my USB drive into use.

But once again, the idea of a old 386 could be used as a file sever and works well is really fantastic!
Despite I use both Ubuntu and Gentoo in my house, I am really looking forward to put
Debian 5.0 into it. Gentoo is lean and fully hand optimized, but compile on such a old machine is against my law:-)

Once again, as always, great article, and make me really want to build my server ASAP.

Posted by: Peng | March 17, 2009 3:24 PM

I'm surprised you managed to get the BIOS on an old 386 to even recognise a 60GB drive Geoff :)

I've been messing with a similar file server using the same ubuntu server and several hard drives. But a cant seem to get it to auto-mount the shared drives on bootup.

And I wish samba setup was as easy as windows client-side setup, instead its a nightmare of trial and error - in my case mostly error :)

When I regain some enthusiasm I will try your method..

Posted by: chris | September 10, 2008 5:51 PM

Very nice article. I've been using a similar setup for about a year now. I have one computer using Ubuntu Server Ed. (as you suggest) but I also have another one running Gentoo. As nice as Ubuntu is, imo, Gentoo makes the better server. Either way - good article, I liked it.

Posted by: Prime | September 10, 2008 12:05 AM

Minor typo: the instruction "cd shared_stuff" should be "mkdir shared_stuff" - sans the quotes of course.

:-)

----------------------------------------
Well spotted. Thanks, Adrian!

-Geoff

Posted by: Adrian | September 9, 2008 1:29 PM

Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)